Integrated circuit components or chips are typically made of semiconductor material and include a desired electrical circuit formed therein. The chips also typically include numerous electrical leads extending therefrom and are very fragile and sensitive to adverse handling.
Such chips are transported from the chip manufacturer in bulk to electronics manufacturers, chip distributors or the like. Distributors typically break a bulk of chips into smaller quantities for shipment to small manufacturers, resellers, repair facilities, individual users or the like.
In order to protect smaller quantities of chips against damage, a distributor typically places one or more chips in some type of tray or other container, and packages the tray and chip for shipping. If more than one tray is required, existing trays are typically arranged in a stack and are banded together with tape or some type of strap, as illustrated in FIG. 2, to prevent the stack from falling apart and causing damage to the chips.
Extreme care must be taken when transferring chips from the bulk containers to the smaller trays so as to eliminate damage which typically includes damage to the electrical leads from the chip. Automated pick-and-place systems can typically perform this task, but are extremely expensive and complicated and are not available to many chip distributors.
Trays for use with such automated pick-and-place systems rely on positioning of existing trays from a chamfered corner of the tray. Such corner positioning, however, is not precise due to the tolerances involved and can lead to mispositioning and damage to the chips.
It therefore would be desirable to provide a tray for integrated circuit components or chips which accepts one or more chips therein, protects the chip against damage during handling, storage and shipping and can be connected to a like tray by an engagement member formed from the same material as the tray. The invention also provides a cost effective apparatus for use by a distributor or the like to transfer chips from bulk containers to the trays without damaging the chips or associated electrical leads.